Those who know Canadian weather will know that Vancouver is the second-warmest major city in Canada in winter (the other being nearby Victoria). It almost NEVER goes below freezing there, and snow in the city is very rare (and usually melts in less than a day).
However, the city gets loads of rain in winter and all the rain turns into snow in the mountains, making for prime skiing and snowboarding conditions. From what I heard, this year, that hasn't materialized and there is almost no snow in the mountains. One of the Winter Olympic venues, Cypress Mountain, has apparently been closed to the public so they can MAKE snow (which is unusual in itself for Vancouver's ski mountains) and maintain it until the Games.
Above: A photo taken in the summer of the Olympic rings between Vancouver International Airport and the Arthur Laing Bridge leading to the City of Vancouver.The opening ceremonies will be at BC Place Stadium, and it'll be the first-ever indoor opening ceremony in Olympic history. With the buckets of rain that the city gets in winter, that's a good choice, and probably a good way to deter the TV viewers from looking around the stadium's exteriors and wondering, "Where's the snow?"
Also, there's the issue of the Downtown Eastside (DTES). For those outside Vancouver, the DTES is known for being possibly the poorest area of Canada and has a high rate of crime, prostitution, drug deals and open drug use. The previous mayor of Vancouver didn't really do much to fix it, and now it's too late to do anything. It's just a stone's throw from the "good" part of downtown, where a lot of visitors will be staying. Just wait -- there will definitely be some media coverage about this and many will ask, "Why is there a huge open air drug den in the middle of this city?"
This is going to be one interesting Olympics.
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